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Risk Management

The problem with ego isn’t that it drives us to achieve something – masculine grit and fortitude is actually the positive side of ego.  Its the blurring of goals and boundaries along the way that are the hazard.  Similar to Dave Camarillo’s remarks in the vid, it is okay to say, “Man, I want to smash everybody today; I’m not going to tap.”.  The line you need to walk is how far you’re willing to go to achieve that goal or maintain your self-perception as a tough-dude.

Remember, there are limits beyond which additional exertion become very dangerous.  When you “need” to smash all the guys you roll with, do you go ape-shiz with strength trying to get your submissions, even though you might injure them?  Would you do tactics (biting/gouging/etc) you normally wouldn’t just to the results you want?  It is okay to train with vigor and force – as long as you keep the risk-reward ratio set to a good level and never abandon your standards. At some point of exertion/tenacity, you leave reasonable behavior and hurt yourself or others.  Why would you trade a six month layoff due to a broken arm just for anything? If you were in the UFC and a six-figure payday were at stake, I might consider it. But for an extra nod from my Sensei saying, “Nice submission defense”,  I wouldn’t risk the medical bills.

Luckily, almost every injury I’ve ever had (or caused) has been after~2.5 hours of training. I failed to acknowledge my body’s dwindling motor control but kept the tempo and activities static.  (The other main failure is to not know how intense you are exerting yourself – since I’m not that strong nor angry, I typically don’t get this one.)  The likelihood of injury raises with the intensity and length of a training session. You want to find that sweet spot where you stay in control enough to keep injury probability low while still milking the training session for every ounce of improvement  you can get. My personal preference is to stay one or two steps back from that edge. Know these boundaries and be disciplined about keeping them. I feel that staying safe is the only legitimate long term strategy for perpetual growth.

(BTW, my rule on tapping:  joint locks I tap early, but chokes I wait a little longer.  Your brain probably won’t get destroyed that bad if you wait till the blood really starts to be slowed/shut off.  Your joints, however, can seriously get damaged by a 1% degree change in angle.)

Think about it this way.  If I told you that you could give up 2% of the skill you might gain in the next year with a guarantee that you would not be injured, would you do it? I would.

Likewise, this risk/reward interplay is applicable to personal relationships.  Yes, you could smash faces 100% of the time, but would this degrade your friendships with your training partners? I am a big believer of win/win scenarios and the tribal-health model of team building.  You get so much more out of your training camps and partners when they respect you, stay injury free and you keep to mutual goals and boundaries.  When one guy decides to get advantage by leaving those boundaries – like going way too hard while sparring – he might be getting a little extra juice out of the session but at the cost of the health of his teammate which will ultimately reduce his long term rewards within that team.

Altered States of Perception

I’m not going to get all Joe Rogan on you – so no need to start smoking the ganja to see the “real world”.  This evil of ego is straightforward to describe; when you have a bad ego, you see the world through colored glasses. Rose-tinted, dickish glasses. You lose a match but don’t accurately attribute the reason you lost to the outcome.  One of my buddies current peeves is when guys tell him that the 10lbs he had on them was why they lost the submission match.  Certainly, those 10lbs helped, but so did the 3+ years of skill gap. Moreover, when you have an unhealthy ego, you seem to automatically defend yourself perception instead of taking data for what it is. You just don’t see what is before you.

I’ve seen guys get injured because they didn’t know when to tap. Usually, these are either the guys with big egos or dudes without a lot of experience.  Once you’ve been around the block, you know how far you can go. You know the limits because you know the terrain so well. That perceptual gap of what you think is happening and what is actually is happening gets slimmer with alive training.

On a different note, I don’t really mind when guys know they are good. If its true, its true.  No reason to lie to yourself on either side of the spectrum. Again, its a boundaries thing.  Being good at fighting means what? That you can cut in line? That you can shout at police without consequence? No, being a good fighter means you’re a good fighter. The problem starts when being X parleys to getting some undeserved privilege in Y.  Because you’ve got the ego-glasses on, you see everything under the guise of “I’m good at X”. Everything gets interpreted, filtered under this belief.

The fix is generally to compete more, try to listen to your coaches and critics and not always defend yourself.  Take things for what they are.  Some dude trolls your youtube vid of your last amateur MMA bout?  So what?  Does his or her comment have merit – usable or actionable knowledge – or is it just, “you suck monkey turd.”  If someone’s right, their right. Get over it and adapt. Scientific type thinking will go a long way.  Looking at results objectively helps diminish that gap between who you think you are, who others perceive you as and the “real” you.

Your ego is much like a your physical body, or a trait.  It responds to training and modification.  Disciplined effort, over time, can shape it – just like your body can add muscle or lose fat – but generally your ego won’t change overnight. If you think you have a problem, go talk to somebody – a friend, a mentor, a coach.  If they really care about you, they’ll be able to help you shift your attitudes without needing to get in their own personal jabs just to wound you.

Bottom Line

Have an ego. Think of yourself as a tough dude. Don’t give up.  Balance that with a proper sense of risk-reduction – both for physical safety and maintaining your relationships. Try to do gut checks about who you are vs who you think you are. Keep those feet on the ground and strive to have a more empirical view of your identity and skills.

But enough of what I think – what do you guys and gals do to keep your ego in check? What is your take on the role of ego in training?

Article Summary: Self talk (ST), or inner talk, is vital to a healthy mental game and performing well – and mixed martial artists should spend some time thinking about it.

Imagine bombs blowing up around you, gunfire whistling past your head, and you’ve still got save the President from terrorists and get the girl. You’re freaking out, which is normal considering the circumstances. Now, what do you say to yourself to calm down, kick ass, and get the job done?

It’s obvious that something like, “Stop freaking out”, “I’m going to die” or “Don’t panic” won’t be as effective as “I can do this” or a confident “It’s go time.” This makes intuitive sense, right?

However, few people manage their self talk as a technical part of their mixed martial arts game. Ironically, UFC fighters frequently talk about how important the mental game is.

Words can Help, Words can Hurt

In my personal experience, I can think of no instance where someone had heavy negative self talk and competed well, no matter the sport.

In sport karate, I’d overhear competitors “get down on themselves” saying stuff like, “I’m so stupid, can’t keep letting my guard down!” Inevitably, in their next match they’d get sloppy, let their guard down and get blasted.

While speaking with a director in the U of U exercise and sport science department and some staff,  I learned how important the “head game”  was in running a triathlon.  We chatted about a man who trains very hard – even being able to complete a full triathlon in practice – but when competition day came around, he’d buckle under the pressure and would not finish the race. The man would get in his head, over and over repeating stuff like “My legs are burning.” and “I’m so tired”.  On the flip side, one woman said that she’s finished a number of triathlons despite being dehydrated and hypothermic – let alone tired. Furthermore, she talked about how she loves the head game, and when the going gets tough she yells at herself like a drill sergeant – “You f*ing b*tch, get off your ass and RUN.”

These anecdotes illustrate what science has begun to prove: Positive self talk improves performance and negative self talk impedes it.

Believe it or not: Language influences reality

Whether you believe that positive self talk can improve your game or not, ST works. In fact, one particular study noted,

These results suggested that the type of self-talk used (i.e., positive or negative) was more important than one’s belief in self-talk. Results supported previous literature indicating that techniques designed to produce positive self-talk should be included in psychological skills training programs.  (emphasis added)

In other words, ST isn’t some new-age mumbo-jumbo that only works if you believe in it hard enough.

Where the mind goes, the body follows

If you’d like to do a small science experiment, try this: Tie a heavy paper-clip at the end of a foot long piece of string. On a piece of paper draw a circle and some arrows, as below.

Holding absolutely still, hang the paper-clip a half-inch above the circle and imagine the paper-clip swinging around the path of the arrows.  Chances are, you can get the clip to move with just your “mind powers”.  You can even draw the arrows going the other direction and get the clip to move counter clockwise.

This isn’t a result of magic – it’s subconscious mind creating micro-twitches, little muscle movements outside of your awareness to move the string and paper-clip.

This is just a generic way of showing how the mind controls the body in unseen ways.

In terms of self talk, the preferred modus operandi is to phrase all of your self speech in the positive. Use language such as “I going to win” in stead of “I’m not going to lose.”   Keeping your mind solely on what you want, not on what you don’t want.

Some schools of thought (Nuero-Linguistic Programming, to name one) suggest that using “negative” or reverse-commands is dangerous – a command like, “don’t think of a pink elephant” causes one to think of a pink elephant.

It reminds me of my favorite Far Side cartoon by Gary Larsen.  The picture is of a percussion player, standing behind the orchestra, holding only one cymbal. Above his head is a thought bubble saying, “Don’t screw up, don’t screw up, don’t screw up.”  The caption?  “Bob screws up.”

Different Types of Self Talk

There have been dozens of studies about self talk and specific sports performance – how self talk affects a golf swing, overhand baseball throw, butterfly swimming times – each revealing a little nugget of truth.

Generically, use self talk increases self-confidence and decreases cognitive anxiety. ST can help you relax and de-stress. Two instructors down at Fusion BJJ (Tony V and Noah J) told me that they use statements like, “Just like at home” and “It’s just hard practice” when fighting to ease their nerves and mental tension, affirming that they can perform just as well in competition as they do in practice.

Technical performance can improve as well; self spoken statements like, “Keep your head up” or “Elbows down!” can trigger a body response to clean up move.

Additionally, there is motivation self talk, statements like “Power through” and “Keep pushing” – phrases to increase your level of focus and muscle power for a particular activity.

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose

There was an interesting study done with young basketball players, illustrating how different types of self talk aided them at different times.

Athletes reported a significant preference for motivational ST when dribbling and shooting, while they did not favor one ST type over the other when passing. Moreover, athletes’ motivational ST was perceived as a significant aid for their concentration, confidence, and sense of relaxation during shooting, while instructional ST as more beneficial for improving their technique during passing.

To me this suggest that you should get in the habit of practicing techniques with their appropriate self speak phrases.  Every time you practice passing from half guard into side control, you could chant, “keep hips low, keep hips low.”

Repeating the Mantras

You probably have noticed that most self talk comes in doubles – ie: “I can do this, I can do this.”  It’s a very natural way to say them, and seem to have more force when doubled up.  Why, exactly?

At this point I could reason with you about how repetition is the mother of all learning, why yoga mantras must be repeated more than once or how it takes at least 7 or more repetitions to make an impression on the subconscious mind.

Instead, I’ll pass along a hillarious story about a pick up artist, Rick H, renowned in the seduction community for his extreme confidence and potent mojo.  Rick is a character to say the least. I’ve never met him personally, but through mutual acquaintances, I’ve been told he’s a legit womanizer. Like a no-fear, funnier, crude version of Don Juan Demarco.

Anyway, a dude starts talking to him about trying to pick girls up in Vegas and running into hookers and asks if he’s ever got “ladies of the night” into bed without having to pay.  Rick says, “All the time.”  He adds something like, ” You have to be funny about it though.”

His system goes something like this, early in the night he’ll meet and chat up a lady, but eventually she’ll give a tell-tale line, “I’m working.” He then gives some BS explanation why they need to “get warmed up”, and she laughs. He ends with, “It’s good for you. It’s good for you. It’s in your own best interest. It’s in your own best interest. C’mon.”

Rick said that for some reason, the key to making it work is saying “It’s good for you,” and “It’s in your own best interest.” But you have to say them twice, otherwise it doesn’t work.”

The inner game of MMA

After hearing some guys at the gym talk about Pedro Sauer’s teaching them to “go with the flow” and “flow with the go”, I considered how too much self talk could hamper performance. I certainly knew that being “too in your head” – analyzing, considering options, assessing performance – bogged down a mans ability to perform well.

John Will, black belt under JJ and Rigan Machado and one of the ‘BJJ Dirty Dozen’ – the first twelve non-Brazilian BJJ black belts in the world – says this about being fully in the moment while grappling:

“…[O]ne of the hallmarks of the truly good grappler, is that he or she becomes more fully and completely ‘engaged’ in the moment than others.

You can repeat some mantras but you don’t want to suffer from getting too in your head.  You’re supposed to be performing a motor skill, not assessing complex behavior and situations. (I believe this is called analysis paralysis).

Resources

http://bjj-australia.blogspot.com/2009/05/struggle-of-combat-demands-our.html

http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol8Iss4/SelfTalkandPerformance.htm

Negative Self Talk and Sports Performance :

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-35005403_ITM

How and When athletes use self talk

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/10413200490498357

Mechanisms underlying the self-talk–performance relationship: The effects of motivational self-talk on self-confidence and anxiety

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W6K-4T4J865-1&_user=418636&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000019853&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=418636&md5=61753a3754e7157a9a30a8d0e225abd5

Self Talk improves penalty shot performance -

http://jvi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/25/3/233

Self Talk in Basketball

http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol9Iss1/BasketballSelfTalk.htm

Olympians Use Self talk

http://www.sports-psych.com/interviews.html

Randy Borum on the Mental Aspects of Fighting

https://www.mixedmartialarts.com/mma.cfm?go=blog.home&entry=3117